The spike in duty deaths has occurred despite the many advancements in police training, equipment (particularly protective armor), and emergency medical trauma care. What does appear to be occurring is more and more criminals are showing an increasing willingness to engage police in armed confrontations.

The names of almost 19,000 law enforcement men and women have been added to the curving, 304-foot marble walls of the National Law Enforcement Officer's Memorial. The officers and families who knew them arrived at the memorial during National Police Week to pay tribute by leaving roses, photos, wreaths, a SWAT helmet, a duty flashlight, and other personel items.

As in Oakland, Pittsburgh police have had a very rough year, grieving and recovering from the murders of three fellow officers. All the while, continuing to serve and protect the citizens of Pittsburgh as the professionals they are.

For two months after the tragic shootings, OPD SWAT went into "stand down" mode, to regroup and train replacement Sergeants. Oakland is part of Alameda County, so Alameda County's tactical team handled any callouts while the OPD team regrouped. In May 2009, OPD SWAT became operational again and has since handled dozens of missions, successfully.

It's critical that only the best warriors get promoted up the ranks in law enforcement. Wearing sergeant's stripes or lieutenant's bars on your uniform has to be about more than just time served or passing a test.

In March of 2009, 21,000 people attended memorial services at Oracle Arena for the four Oakland police officers killed in the line of duty. A desperate parolee shot two motor officers and later two sergeants during a SWAT raid of an apartment. The video was produced by the Contra Costa Times.

The Oakland Police Department's SWAT unit will get an additional third-party review, following a Board of Inquiry report that harshly criticized its handling of a desperate parolee's killing of four officers in March.

Start with the OPD board of inquiry after-action report and definitely include the OPD radio transmissions from March 21. Follow up on these by reading as many news and LE articles, blogs, commentaries that you can find, especially via the Internet. And if you have access to any "inside intel," that's better yet.

An independent report on the March 2009 slayings of four Oakland police officers released Wednesday concluded that two SWAT team members lost their lives in a poorly planned "ad hoc" raid in search of the killer that should have been called off.

The report details a cascade of mistakes that led to the tragic deaths of Sgt. Mark Dunakin, Officer John Hege, Sgt. Ervin Romans, and Sgt. Daniel Sakai. It faults the Oakland PD for poor communication, weak command and control, and poor planning.

A board that will include law enforcement experts from across the state and the nation will conduct a "complete review" of the March 21 fatal shootings of four police officers, the Oakland Tribune reports.

Shortly after the murders of four Oakland officers by parolee Lovelle Mixon in March, I got a call from Police Magazine editor David Griffith. He wanted me to write a feature article on the Oakland incidents. To be honest I didn’t want to do it.

Four officers murdered. A fifth wounded. One suspect dead. A police department in shock. Not since the 1970 Newhall shooting has an officer-involved shooting reverberated so strongly throughout the law enforcement community.

How we honor them and all of our thousands of fallen brothers and sisters is to continue to do our job to the utmost of our ability with dignity and honor, no matter the obstacles. We are the thin blue line, and if we don’t do the job of protecting society, no one will.

As officers from 15 agencies patrolled city streets, the entire 815-member Oakland Police Department came to celebrate the lives of the officers even as they struggled to come to terms with the deadliest day in its history. To lose one officer was bad enough. That four gave the ultimate sacrifice was almost too much to bear.

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